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Once more, I took on the mantle of wedding photographer in Berlin: This time for my old school buddy Max, I’ve known him for 13 years by now. As a soccer coach, he is on the field almost every day.

In February 2017, I returned from New York City. Working for Blue Chalk Media was wonderful, and the city was too of course. But because New York is as exhausting as it is expensive, I was somewhat glad to come back to Berlin when my visa was over.

Shortly after coming back, Max reached out to me. After seven years he wanted to marry his girlfriend and I should be his photographer for the day. While he is indeed a school pal of mine, we were neither in the same class or even the same school. But he played soccer with my friends so he was always around at parties. In summer of 2007, we even went camping at the Baltic Sea. I think that was the last time I saw him before this year – excluding phone calls and digital communications.

It’s the fifth wedding that I have shot by now and I am very happy with the results. Maybe it’s the experience and calmness with which I approach weddings now. Or it is the trust I had with Max and his gilfriend, who – while claiming they are not comfortable with being photographed – played along really well with all ideas and challenges.
Whatever it was doesn’t matter. I enjoyed the day, the food was amazing and the atmosphere great.

It has been three years since I wrote my last book and two years after it was published. Sales remain good, but writing a book is such an exhausting and time consuming work, that I didn’t consider it an option for a long time anymore.
Now, after investing lots of time into some stories, I’m considering it again. It’s a great place to conserve lots of research and memories for many years. But I won’t write anytime soon. Too many exciting things to do.

Like moving to New York. I was offered a job in Brooklyn and will move west soon. Currently I’m just waiting for the visa to process, while enjoying the late grey autumn in Berlin.

I was fortunate to have taken part in the ‘Journey’ program 2016 by the Bakala Foundation. For ten days, we twenty young journalists from the US, Hungary, Bulgaria, Poland, UK, Germany, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Romania, Russia and the Ukraine resided in a mansion, overlooking Prague.

We had lectures from 9 AM to 9 PM – and usually some Czech beer afterwards. The teachers were highly trained journalists and writers, from Bloomberg Media, Wall Street Journal or CNN.

When it ended, we were all surprised how emotional it was. We grew quite close in such a short period of time.